Refshauge Lecturer

Dr Tim Olds, Anthropometrist, University of South Australia.

Tim is an Associate Professor at the University of South Australia. He has research interests in anthropometry, mathematical modeling of sports performance, and the fitness, fatness and physical activity of children. He has PhDs in French literature and exercise science. According to his friends, he is “not quite good enough at too many things.”

Professor Peter Fricker

Thermoskin Sponsored Speaker

"Genes and Genetics in Sport - Now What?"

Sports Physician and Director of the Australian Institute of Sport

Professor Peter Fricker is a highly respected leader in Australian sport, on both domestic and international platforms, and has been Director of the AIS since May 2005.

Peter was also the Medical Director of Australian teams participating in the Manchester Commonwealth Games and the Athens Olympics, revisiting the role for this year’s Commonwealth Games in Melbourne. His authority is qualified by former memberships of the Australian Sports Drug Medical Advisory Committee and national Anti-doping Research Panel, as well as past presidency of the Australasian College of Sports Physicians and a position as Adjunct Professor of Sports Medicine at Australian National University’s Faculty of Medicine.

Peter has been critical to the success of the AIS and the resurgence of Australia as a sporting power. Official commendations include a medal of the Order of Australia (1993) and the Australian Sports Medal (2001).

The AIS is the pre-eminent elite sports training institution in Australia with world-class facilities and support services. It is widely acknowledged, in Australia and internationally, as a leader in elite athlete development.

Professor Stephan Rössner, MD PhD

Endocrinologist, Huddings University Hospital

Professor Stephan Rössner graduated in medicine from the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm in 1968 and completed his clinical training at the Karolinska Hospital. In 1972 he became Director of the hospital’s Coronary Care Unit. He subsequently became Director of a new Obesity Unit at the hospital 1985. In 1988 he served as Visiting Professor at the Bowman-Gray School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, USA until 1990 when he returned to the Karolinska Institute as Professor of Health Behaviour Research. He is currently the Director of the Obesity Unit at the Karolinska University Hospital, Huddinge in Stockholm. In 2000 he served as a visiting professor at the University of Sydney.

He has been a member of numerous commissions and working parties internationally and in Sweden, including the Swedish Society for the Study of Obesity, in which he has served as President 1990-98.
From 1998 to 2002 he served as the President of the International Association for the Study of Obesity (IASO), having been the Secretary and President-elect since 1990.

Professor Rössner has written over 520 scientific papers on lipid metabolism, cardiovascular medicine, obesity matters and health behaviour research. His recent research has focused on the development of long term weight loss programmes. In addition to his scientific work he has been communicating a health message appearing frequently on radio and TV, as a stand-up comedian and actor at the Stockholm City Theatre in so-called “science theatre”. He has written more than 20 book popularising health messages and some 950 articles in the lay press.

Professor Wendy Brown

Physical Activity and Health, University of Queensland

Wendy Brown is Professor of Physical Activity and Health in the School of Human Movement Studies at the University of Queensland.   She has had a diverse career path with qualifications in physiology, human biology, exercise physiology, and health and physical education.  Her research focuses on physical activity and health promotion, and the prevention and management of chronic illness, from a population health perspective.  She was one of the lead investigators with the '10,000 steps Rockhampton' project, and one of the 'founding' researchers with the Australian Longitudinal of Women's Health, which has been tracking the health of about 40,000 Australian women for the last ten years.  Her current work focuses on the promotion of physical activity for people with chronic disease (including diabetes, osteoarthritis and colon cancer) and the relationships between physical activity and health in women.

Dr Jill Cook

Physiotherapist, Latrobe University

Jill Cook is a physiotherapist who after a clinical career of 20 years has  become primarily a musculoskeletal researcher. Her main interests are in connective tissue function, injury and healing. Her particular interest are risk factors for tendon injury and the tendon in growth and development. She is currently working in the Musculoskeletal Research Centre at La Trobe University and at the Centre for Physical Activity and Nutrition Research at Deakin University.

Mr Simon Bartold

Sports Podiatrist and Footwear Design Specialist

Simon Bartold is a graduate of Adelaide University where he gained a Bachelor Degree in Science with a major in Physiology. His further qualification in Podiatry was gained at the University of South Australia. He was awarded the University prize for dux of the course. Simon holds postgraduate fellowships in Sports Podiatry with the Australian Academy of Podiatric Sports Medicine and in Sport Sciences with Sports Medicine Australia. He has completed studies in advanced podiatric biomechanics and has published papers nationally and internationally. In 1998 was awarded the prestigious Best Clinical Paper award for original research at the Australian Conference of Science and Medicine in Sport. He repeated this feat in 2002 with a paper entitled “A Numerical Foot Model to Predict Sole Stability Parameters in Athletic Footwear”. It is the first time this award has been presented to the same researcher twice. He is currently completing his first book, “The Foot and Leg in Sport”, due to be published late in 2006.

Simon has been an executive board member of the Australian Sports Medicine Federation and Past President of the Australian Academy of Podiatric Sports Medicine, and remains the only podiatrist worldwide to ever hold a commission position with the International Sports Medicine Federation (F.I.M.S.). He has been the consultant podiatrist to the Australian Institute of Sport Cricket Academy as well as a number of state and national sporting teams. He was a member of Podiatry Services at the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000. He is an Editorial Board Member for the Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport and the Australasian Physiotherapy Journal and a journal reviewer for the Australasian Journal of Podiatric Medicine and the British Journal of Sports Medicine. He is also a member of the Advisory Committee for the Australasian Journal of Podiatric Medicine.

Apart from private practice, Simon is an adjunct lecturer to the School of Health Sciences at the University of South Australia. Research interests include the technical aspects of athletic footwear and pressure/force measurement in relation to intervention parameters and injury.

Simon’s “real job” is as International Research Coordinator for the global body of the Asics Corporation.

Professor Peter McNair

Director of the Physical Rehabilitation Centre, Auckland University of Technology

Peter is the Director of the Physical Rehabilitation Research Centre and a Professor in the School of Physiotherapy. He was a founding member of the Centre with a background in sports physiotherapy and clinical biomechanics. His research interests involve viscoelasticity of soft tissues and functional performance following injury or disease. His recent research has focused upon the effects of osteoarthritis on knee joint function. Peter is currently undertaking studies involving magnetic resonance imaging of articular cartilage and the effect of disuse on muscle activation patterns during various physical tasks. Peter currently sits on the Editorial Boards of the international journals Clinical Biomechanics, the Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport and Physical Therapy in Sports. He also reviews papers prior to publication for a number of international journals.

Dr Cheryl Albright

Associate Professor at the Cancer Research Center of Hawaii (CRCH), The University of Hawaii

Cheryl Albright is an Associate Professor at the Cancer Research Center of Hawaii (CRCH) at the University of Hawaii. Her doctoral degree is in Social Psychology/Behavioral Medicine and her Masters in Public Health degree is in Social Epidemiology. Her current and previous work has focused on behaviour change interventions to reduce chronic disease risk, including tobacco control, obesity, physical activity, nutrition, and breast cancer screening . One of her recent studies tested a mail and telephone-based intervention designed to increase leisure-time physical activity in sedentary, low-income, ethnic minority women. She also recently evaluated changes in physical activity levels reported before pregnancy and up to a year after delivery in a multiethnic sample of women with infants.

Dr Kay Crossley

APA Sports Physiotherapist, Olympic Park Sports Medicine Centre, Melbourne

Kay Crossley is an APA Sports Physiotherapist, working at Olympic Park SM Centre in Melbourne. Kay was physiotherapist to the Australian Team for the 1998 Commonwealth Games, 1997 & 1999 Track & Field World Championships and 2000 Olympic Games. Kay completed her PhD in 2002, her doctoral topic being “Physiotherapy Management of Patellofemoral Pain”. Since this time, Kay has maintained a small, but specialised, clinical practice whilst pursuing her research interests in the area of knee pain and conservative interventions, particularly anterior knee pain and knee osteoarthritis. She is a senior research fellow at the School of Physiotherapy, The University of Melbourne.

Professor Caroline Finch

School Of Human Movement And Sport Sciences, University of Ballarat

Caroline Finch is a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Principal Research Fellow and Professor of Human Movement Science at the University of Ballarat. Prof Finch is one of Australia’s leading injury epidemiologists, particularly in the area of sports injury prevention. Her research has been published in over 160 peer-review journals, book chapters and government reports. Her research aims to provide an evidence base for prevention at the broad community level and to use a data-driven approach to identify injury problems. She is interested in injury surveillance and biostatistical approaches, effectiveness of prevention measures and identifying barriers towards the uptake of such measures. Her research has had direct application to many sports including Australian Football, squash, netball, rugby union, golf and others. Since 2002, Prof Finch has been Editor of the Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport (JSAMS).

Dr Susan White

Sports Physician, Olympic Park Sports Medicine Centre, Melbourne

Susan White is a Sports Physician working at the Olympic Park Sports Medicine Centre. She has been a member of the Australian Sports Drug Medical Advisory Committee since its inception in 1999. She was a member of the Medical Executive M2006 O.C. and TUE subcommittee of the Commonwealth Games Federation medical commission 2006. She is also Chief Medical Officer of Netball Australia and a member of IFNA (International Netball Federations) Medical Commission. She is a member of the Cricket Australia anti-doping tribunal panel, Book review editor- British Journal of Sports Medicine and Editorial Board - Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine